You cannot capture a dream until you reach for it.

Someone asked if I was dreading Christmas season this year. I think they were joking.

Maybe not. Last year I got the flu, was ill through much of the holiday season and the year before I fell & broke my ankle curtailing many holiday activities. Both still were very special Christmases full of blessings.

Many times over the years the holidays have been bittersweet missing lost love ones and facing life challenges. Yet the eternal spirit of Christmas always shimmers through– whether it’s a choir singing like an angel chorus, or wonder sparkling in the eyes of a child, or the joy deep within as we listen once again to the story of baby Jesus.

So I intend to celebrate the holiday season this year and will try to share a few moments with you, family & friends.

Hi Karen, you know that I love your blogs. It seems we all have some holidays that are challenging. This holiday is my challenge. I’m trying to be thankful for ALL the many blessings I have every day of my life. Some days this is just too much to even think is possible. I want anyone who may read this, to include ME, to focus on the family we still have on this earth that we can hug, buy a gift for, enjoy at the dinner table. Having lost my oldest son to alcohol abuse in August is the worst “trial” in my life. He was born on Thanksgiving Day 40 years ago. This year, the day after Thanksgiving, I sat down, took a deep breath, and read his autopsy and the police report that arrived in the mail yesterday. I felt sick, I felt numb, I wondered how this could really be happening? But it happened….and if it takes all I have inside me, and sometimes it DOES take everything in me, I will focus on my other wonderful son’s, their loving wife’s and my beautiful grandchildren. I have learned the hard way, that some days we HAVE to dig deep, to realize all the blessings we all have to be thankful for and I MUST dig deep, only to realize that in the long run, those special blessings are right on the surface facing me head on. I can’t change what choices my deceased son made that ruined his life, but I MUST change how I’m feeling with my pain. Hug your children and know that God is hugging all of us! MERRY CHRISTMAS , love Lynda